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Lighting examples

With so many factors to consider, it is very difficult to know what you need and what you don’t need. For most situations a single light and a reflector is all you will need in your kit to capture good footage. The following examples start simple and slowly work up in complexity so you can pinpoint what you probably should do the next time you want to shoot a movie with your handy-cam.

A cloudy day is the best natural lighting situation available. You do not require any additional equipment to achieve perfect exposure and contrast. You also have similar conditions on a sunny day just before sunrise and just after sunset, also known as the magic hour.

In the shade on a sunny day is a pretty good option as long as you have a reflector. Use either a silver or a gold reflector to illuminate the subject, and you will be able to expose the background as well.

Direct sunlight should be avoided, as it is very difficult for the subject not too squint. A white reflector is used to bounce light onto the subject’s face to fill in the harsh shadows cast by the sun. Do not use a silver or gold reflector because they will create glare, causing the subject to squint.

Indoors on a sunny day can work, especially if the environment is very bright in color. Open all the curtains, blinds and doors to let as much light in as possible, then check with the camera. If at 75 percent it is still too dark, you will need to get creative.

You might need to place a silver reflector outside to bounce light into the room.

Another option is to make the subject sit right next to a window, but then you might end up with harsh shadows on their face. Of course the solution is to use a white reflector to fill in the shadows.

Indoors on a cloudy day is not an option. There will simply not be enough light, unless the room has huge windows and is very brightly colored.

In this situation you will have to either use a red head with a CTB gel or a blonde studio light to illuminate the scene.

Alternatively you close all the curtains, blinds, and doors so no sunlight is entering the room and just use an unfiltered red head or two.

Another solution is to cover the windows with a CTO gel and use an unfiltered red head to illuminate the scene.

Outdoors at night can be fun to film, especially if you like the noir look. You can use the headlights of a car to illuminate the subject quite effectively.

Otherwise, you will need to get an extension cable to run power to a red head or two.

You can also get power transformers that convert 12v battery power to standard mains power, which will allow you to shoot “on location”.

Make sure you use a separate 12v battery that is not the one in your car. Otherwise, you may end up stranded with a flat battery.

In a car at night driving around can be achieved in your own garage. You can buy battery powered fluorescent tubes from a hardware store that you can place on the dashboard. These lights shine enough light onto the face of the driver to properly expose them. Stick a single red head behind the car with its barn doors almost closed and it will look like the headlight of a tailing car. Spray some water on the windshield, and have a strong fan blowing air through the driver’s window and it will look very believable.

Indoors at night is your standard studio situation. Red heads are the best choice, since your internal light globes will most likely be tungsten (3200K). If you have any fluorescent lamps in the scene, or non-3200K sources, you will either need to turn them off or cover them with a CTO gel.

Lighting setups

So for situations where you have to use studio lighting as the primary light source, you have a few options on how to light the scene. The basic idea in perfect lighting is to illuminate the subject, fill in the shadows, separate from the background, and create the mood.

Single, direct light source: This setup involves placing a studio light that shines directly onto the subject. This will create very harsh shadows and depending on how you position the barn doors on the light, can make the surrounding environment very dark. This lighting setup is very dramatic and used exclusively to create a particular mood in film. The shadows cast by the light can be softened, by using a 50 percent diffuser gel on the light, if you have one.

A kick light and reflector: A single light source is placed behind the subject, up very high, shining down at an oblique angle. This type of light source is called a kick light, and it accentuates the subject’s outline and shape. A white reflector is then used to bounce the kick light back up onto the subject’s face. The diffused light from the white reflector is very effective at providing even contrast across the subject’s face. This lighting setup is very effective in a small space since it only requires one light, but effectively delivers two light sources. Do not use any control gels on the kick light, it needs to be harsh so it can accentuate the subject and separate them from the background.

Two lights and a reflector: With two lights you have more options, but the most common setup is to use the second light to illuminate the background. Light the subject with a kick and reflector, and then point the second light onto the background. If you have one, use either a control gel or a creative gel on your background light. A 50 percent diffuser or ND is adequate. A color gel or a pattern gel can create a nice mood. If you don’t have any gels you can try bouncing the light off a wall or the ceiling to create a natural mood. This lighting setup is adequate for nearly any small scene.

Three-point lighting: This lighting set-up is the textbook approach to lighting a subject. You setup a kick light, then place a main light with a 25 percent ND gel slightly off-camera that illuminates most of the subject, and finally another filler light with a 25 percent (or 50 percent) diffuser gel shining onto the subject from the opposite side of the camera that fills in the shadows cast by the main light. The main light and filler light are slightly elevated to avoid casting any shadows onto the surrounding environment and walls. Pay attention when you next watch a film or big budget TV show and you will notice this lighting technique; particularly on close-ups.

Multiple-point lighting: If you happen to have more than three lights you can go nuts, as long as you have the space to set the lights up. Illuminate your subjects and then the background. Have fun!

Work with what you’ve got and solve your lighting problems with the tools available to you. If you don’t have any studio lights at all but you want to shoot something that looks like it is at night, you could make a room very dark and using a large mirror (the mother of all reflectors) to shine very harsh light in through the doorway at the subject’s face. If you set the exposure on the camera properly it will look like it is night and there is a bright light source somewhere in the room. Experiment with what you have and you will be surprised at what you can achieve.